But the Obama administration, while declining to comment on the specific order, said the practice was "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States".

Uh, that's really not the point. Under that standard, there is no Constitution. There are lots of things that could be very useful tools in stopping crime and attacks, but we don't allow them because they violate the public's rights. We don't allow the FBI to walk up and down the street, enter every house and search it for weapons, for example. While that might be a "critical tool" in stopping the use of those weapons, it's also incredibly unconstitutional on a whole variety of levels. Saying that it's okay to ignore the 4th Amendment entirely because there are terrorists out there is no excuse at all.

And, of course, as we noted last night, there's nothing new about this. Already it's been confirmed that the order to Verizon was not a special case, but rather a "renewal of an ongoing practice." Senator Feinstein has admitted that this has been going on consistently for the past seven years, and this latest leak is just the "renewal" for another three months. And if anyone thinks that only Verizon got this order and has been doing this for the past seven years, you're not paying attention. As we've noted, we've had multiple whistleblowers who have flat out said that this was happening for years. Mark Klein, who worked at AT&T, revealed in 2006 that he'd helped hook up NSA machines to record all data flowing over the AT&T network. Meanwhile former NSA employee William Binney also blew the whistle on this activity from the NSA side. We've known all of this for years... and no one seemed to care until now.

Even more incredible, is that the NSA has no problem directly lying about all of this. Because last week, before all of this came out, and before the Obama administration 'fessed up to using this "critical tool," General Keith Alexander, the head of the NSA, ridiculously claimed the following:

"The great irony is we're the only ones not spying on the American people," he quipped.

Just days after that was said, we have written proof that this claim is 100% false. So, now, what do we do about it?

Well, if our government actually worked like it was supposed to, Congress could hold that member of the Executive Branch in "Contempt of Congress" for lying to them... But Congress is totally cool with the NSA doing this, so that would be silly on their part.

I wouldn't be surprised if the NSA thinks it's actually telling the truth with its BS semantics. See, it all depends on what the definition of 'spying' is. They've been playing this semantic game with the facts for years. If anyone remembers the last NSA scandal, it was over their so-called "Echelon" system in the 90's. They were peeking at all our shit and lying about it years before 9/11. And as Masnick pointed out, it's only recently that anyone seems to care.

Finally!

Now when someone says "It's a free country, isn't it?" I can point to this and say 'Nope, this right here is the beginning of the end.'
I'm going to have to make a note of all the incumbents and tick the other box when it comes time to try to vote these people out of power.

HEY, remember Google? It too is part of NSA spying.

"And, of course, as we noted last night, there's nothing new about this." ... Right, just a new version of Techdirt's motto.

Where do you stand on Google's spying, Mike? -- You ask rhetorically, but here's an actual start on what to do: Noscript, removing Google from its whitelist, and hosts files to stop Google's parasites. -- And then, protest every new invasion by Google: Streetview, Glass, and then on to it being TAXED, just take away all the money its hiding offshore. There's nothing inevitable about stopping spying. Just remove your own tacit permission and force our servants to remove the special privileges in tax "law".

It only takes a couple of minutes to let your voice be heard.
Speak up.
Better yet, call your elected representatives' offices on your cell phone, and inform the person who answers that the call is being logged by the NSA.

Re: HEY, remember Google? It too is part of NSA spying.

Come on they aren't stealing phone records, they aren't taking anything YOU didn't give them, and they can't kill or send you to prison. Google is like the fly on my wall watching me eat dinner, unless I kill the fly it has every right to watch me eat.

Every freedom given up hands our enemies a massive victory because that is exactly what they want. There is no justification for this kind of spying and the expense involved in carrying it out (I would love to see figures on that, by the way). It is amazing the flagrant disregard the US government have for their own citizens' rights and the Constitution.

Re:

We don't allow the FBI to walk up and down the street, enter every house and search it for weapons, for example.

Hey, NSA is just recording a bunch of digits, right? It's not your property, right? You can't prove they are doing anything improper with all of those digital files, can you? After, in a worst case scenario, those files are only being "shared", right?

With all these spying, phone tapping going on how come they can't prevent all these bombs from going off in American soil ( I know we suck at espionage internationally, so I'm leaving it alone)?? Or are they just interested in people who downloaded and/or uploaded movies and/or music stuff??

Re: The American public still won't care

Yeah, I've about had it with these comments. I'm sure that when you bring these topics up to your friends, they just ignore it. Oh, what was that? You don't bring these things up to your friends? Well, I guess YOU get the government YOU deserve.

I'm the annoying guy who talks to anyone who will listen... and a lot of people do. Then when it finally makes its way to the mainstream media, it really has a chance to sink in. Maybe if more people who knew what was going on would talk about it, we wouldn't have the government we do.

Re: Re: The American public still won't care

The sad thing is that you are labelled a tin-foil hatter only to be proven correct in a few years. This AM I had a few co-workers come to my office to get my reaction to this recent news. I'm surprised it took them this long to figure it out.

Re:

"It's not your property, right?"

Technically it may be Verizon's property (although I would argue that I still have some privacy interest in it.) That wouldn't change the fact that the government is getting court orders even though they have no individualized suspicion.

This court order is ILLEGAL. I don't care what bills Congress has passed or what the FISA court has approved or even what the Supreme Court might have to say. It IS unconstitutional.

"You can't prove they are doing anything improper with all of those digital files, can you?"

Getting them in the first place was improper. But beyond that, we don't NEED to prove what they're doing with the information. We can repeal FISA because we want to.

Re: Skills To Get The Job Differ From Skills To Successfully Perform

This is very true. You can take a look at children's shows to see the change over time. The Lone Ranger, Superman, Green Lantern, etc were all very modest. Now, the swaggering braggart is the norm. Iron Man, Spider Man, even Sonic the Hedgehog are all full of themselves. When these are your childhood heros, what do you think you will respect when you grow up?

Re: Custom dictionaries

Re: The American public still won't care

Exactly. I have friends that say the just don't care anymore what the gov't does and know people that have no clue how the gov't (should)operates. Can't tell you the three branches of gov't but can tell you every name and thing about the latest pop artist and whats going on in every reality show.

Re: Re: Only

Re: Re: The American public still won't care

Exactly. I have friends that say the just don't care anymore what the gov't does and know people that have no clue how the gov't (should)operates. Can't tell you the three branches of gov't but can tell you every name and thing about the latest pop artist and whats going on in every reality show.

Re:

According to Politico, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the ranking Republican on the committee, acknowledged Thursday morning that this surveillance program has been going on for years and that Congress has been regularly briefed on it. "As far as I know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been in place for the past seven years," Feinstein noted. "This renewal is carried out by the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress." Chambliss said, "This is nothing new. This has been going on for seven years…Every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this. To my knowledge there has not been any citizen who has registered a complaint. It has proved meritorious because we have collected significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years." Yet several senators—Democratic and Republican—did say they were troubled by the program.

Now re-read this: "To my knowledge there has not been any citizen who has registered a complaint" Of course there hasn't been a complaint registered, it is a secret program with a secret interpretation of the law.

Re: Skills To Get The Job Differ From Skills To Successfully Perform

Well had I been President the US Administration would soon get butchered under abuse the law and lose your job. Maybe even violate the US Constitution or Bill of Rights in a serious way and get exiled.

Like in this case I would be so "I don't care shit about your technicalities when you DON'T SPY ON ALL PEOPLE".

Re: Re: Re: Re:

People are unjustly enriched by converting the property of others to their own use that is offered for sale. You get something of value without compensating the rightful owner. That he is not deprived of the property doesn't mitigate the unjust enrichment.

How many times do you need to hear this? You can't be that stupid, can you?

Re: Re: Only

He's right. The illegal part about Watergate was the burglery not the recordings. Nixon recorded his own phone calls for his own records. There is no crime in that. Where they were important were once their existence was known, they were sought because they likely contained evidence that proved that Nixon was involved in the plan.

However one of the purposes of the burglery was to install listening and wiretapping devices that would have been used to illegally spy on the Democratic Party but they failed and were caught which is what ultimately kicked off the whole scandal.

Re: Re: HEY, remember Google? It too is part of NSA spying.

Really? You can't make the connection between what many perceive of Google spying on its users and the NSA spying on the public?

The only issue that I have with OOTB's comment was "Just remove your own tacit permission..." (my emphasis) because the use of tacit here implies that the general population using Google's products are fully aware and fully comprehend the actual extent to the data that Google collects. Many of the people I know couldn't even tell you how a browser works or what the difference is between HTML and HTTP much less understand what data Google collects and how it could affect them. Therefore it isn't tacit for them, which makes them think that Google is spying on them.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

It's always funny when personal attacks like that are so hilariously mis-aimed. Not only do I not pirate (and therefore I'm not rationalizing anything), but I make my living creating software that tends to get pirated.

Re: Re: Re: HEY, remember Google? It too is part of NSA spying.

I do think that what Google does can be properly termed as "spying." The big difference, of course, is that I can opt out of Google's spying. I can't opt out of the government's spying. The two situations are not comparable.

Re: Re: Re:

Actually, the moment the courts stop being honest and start breaking the law of the land (you know, the funny little Constitution thing?) people are allowed to use the Constitution as a justification to change the government through force of arms.

Re: Finally!

Re: Re: Re: Re:

Wouldn't hurt to add the Declaration of Independence.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. ...

Stop NSA Spying on Americans...

...and similar government abuses and violations of the Constitution by supporting the Libertarian Party.

Clearly this is not a new Obama administration practice. Both Democrats and Republicans have enabled it. The ruling two-party cartel is morally bankrupt.

You can do something about it by withdrawing your support. Don't register as a Republican or Democrat. Stop voting for Republicans and Democrats. Join the leading alternative party that stands for civil liberties, economic freedom, peace, and upholding the Constitution -- www.LP.org

Re: The American public still won't care

while i am alternately cynical and hopeful, i can not -today- let the statement "we get the gov't we deserve" go by unremarked...
we don't 'deserve' the steaming pile of shit that we have for gummint, because the system which selects said gummint has been corrupted and perverted over time, such that our influence over it has become negligible...

as i've stated on numerous occasions, it is *NOT* one person one vote, it is one dollar one vote... guess who has all the dollars ? it ain't the 99%...

our power has been frittered away, and we are distracted by hot-button issues, bullshit shadows of terrorism, and impending global disasters, such that the reins of power are in the gnarled, greedy claws of the 1%...